I've seen the film many times, and while I knew going into it that the book would be a different beast altogether, I can't help but feel that the scares were pretty thin on the ground, and the character development, while robust, was not very interesting.

The only thing I really enjoyed that the film failed to touch upon was the backstory of the Overlook's sordid history. Then again, in the film, the sparing details left an air of mystery, which suited the atmosphere.

All in all, I felt the amount of exposition in the novel was unnecessary and dragged in parts. It's the second King book that I felt was better in the screen adaptation (the other one being The Green Mile). The book was still enjoyable enough, but not one of King's strongest effort. Whereas the film is definitely one of the best horror films of all time.

What did you make of novel?